ARGUMENT.-- The Satire opens dramatically. A young Roman of the upper
classes is discovered asleep, snoring off the effects of yesterday's
debauch. To him one of his familiars, half companion, half tutor, who
rouses him by telling him that the sun is already high in the heavens,
and it is time to be up. The young fellow bawls for his servants, brays
for them, and makes a show of going to work. But nothing suits him. He
curses the ink because it is too thick, then he curses it because it is
too thin, and finally swears at pen and ink both. 'You big baby,'
exclaims the monitor. 'Do you expect me to study with such a pen?' asks
the young man with a whine. 'Don't come to me with your puling nonsense,
you dab of untempered mortar, you unformed lump of clay. You are lazing
away the time, when every minute is of moment, when the potter's wheel
should fly faster and faster, and deft hands should mould the vessel of
your life (1-24). But I see you think that you have already attained
perfection. You are satisfied with your position in life, move in a good
circle. Tell that to the profane vulgar. I know you, every inch of you.
Shame on you, that you, with your training, should live like a brutish
creature, who does not know what a rich jewel he is flinging away, who
sinks without a struggle in the slough of vice, whose soul dies and
makes no sign. But you, who know better, will have a dire fate. No worse
doom could Jove himself bring down on cruel tyrants than the vain
yearning for lost virtue, which they can never hope to regain. Nay,
worse than the brazen bull of Phalaris and the pendent sword of Damocles
is the consciousness of sin, the pallor that blanches not the cheek
only, but the very heart (25-43). You are past the age of childhood, and
have not the excuse of tender years. If you were a child, I could
understand your behavior. I remember my own childhood, how hateful and
unprofitable task-work alternated with frivolous play, how I dodged the
learning of the piece I had to speak, how I had no thought for any thing
save dice and marbles and tops (44-51). But you have reached a higher
level. You know the great norms of life, the doctrines of the Porch; you
understand the distinctions of Right and Wrong. Pshaw! As I live, you
are snoring still. Wake up, I say, and tell me-- have you any aim in
life? Or are you nothing better than a boy following sparrows with a
pinch of salt?' (52-62).
Here the poet drops the dramatic form, deserts the individuality of the
student, and makes his exhortation general, reserving, of course, the
right to pick out at will any member of his congregation for rebuke. He
mounts the pulpit and begins to preach. His text is:
'Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer.' Go back to the first principles
of all true philosophy, the constitution of the universe, the position
of man in that universe, the great laws of Ethic as derived from the
great laws of Physic. In brief, study your Stoic catechism. Do not allow
yourself to be diverted from higher study by success in the lower ranges
of life. You lawyer there, for instance, do not let hams and sprats, the
gifts of thankful clients, seduce you from the ambrosia of true
philosophy (63-76).
But hark! some one is talking out in church. It is the voice of the
unsavory centurion.
'I have got all the sense I want. I would not be for all the world one
of your painful philosophers, with head tucked down, eyes riveted on the
ground, mumbling and muttering a lot of metaphysic trash-- _chimaera
bombinans in vacuo_-- and the rest of the scholastic stuff. What! get
pale for that? What! miss my breakfast for that!'
Great applause in the galleries, and a rippling reduplication of
laughter from the muscular humanity of the period (77-87).
A sudden turn, or rather a sudden return to the figure of v. 63. The
connection, if there be a connection, seems to be this:
Such men as the centurion are hopelessly lost, have already 'imbodied
and imbruted.' Like Natta, they are unconscious of their moral ruin. But
there are those who, half-conscious of their condition, consult a
physician of the soul, a spiritual director. The state of this class is
set forth in a dramatic parable. A man feels sick, goes to see a doctor,
follows his advice for a while, gets better, and then, despite all
remonstrance, violates the plainest rules of diet and falls dead
(88-106).
But before our preacher can make the application, he is interrupted by
an impatient hearer, perhaps none other than the yawning youth, whose
acquaintance we made in the beginning of the Satire. Whoever he is, he
is so literal that he does not understand the drift of the apologue.
'Sick! Who's sick? Not I. No fever in my veins. No chill in hands or
feet.'
'But,' says our resolute moralist, 'the sight of money, the meaning
smile of a pretty girl, makes your heart beat a devil's tattoo. Coarse
flour shows that you are mealy-mouthed, and tough cabbage brings out the
ulcer in your throat. Kindle the fire of wrath beneath the cauldron of
your blood, and Orestes is sane in comparison' (107-118).
According to Jahn, this Satire is aimed at those that have received a
thorough training in ethics, but, owing to the weakness of human nature,
fail to follow the true guide of life; and, although well aware of their
short-comings, imitate the example of those brutish souls whose sins are
excused by their ignorance. In short, the Satire is an expansion of the
old theme-- _Video meliora proboque_.
Knickenberg (_De Ratione Stoica in Persii Satiris Apparente_, p. 16
seqq.) maintains that in conformity with Stoic doctrine, it is not so
much the weakness of human nature as imperfect knowledge-- the _inscitia
debilis_ of v. 99-- that is the source of the vices which the author
lashes in the present Satire. According to the Stoic, virtue is
knowledge, and the snoring youth, with his half-knowledge, which keeps
him from rising to the height of virtue, is the pattern of the false
philosophy of the time.
But Persius is not an expounder of the Stoic philosophy, as a system,
any more than Seneca is; and commentators have attributed to him a
profounder knowledge of philosophy than he had, certainly a profounder
knowledge than it would have been artistic to show. Persius repeats the
catechism of the sect, expands some of their favorite theses, elaborates
some of their pet figures, and finds fault with his fellow students in
the lofty tone which he had caught from his teachers. A glaring paradox,
such as we find in 5, 119, he is but too happy to reproduce, but the
subtle analysis for which the Stoics were famous does not appear in his
poems.
The Satire is said by the Scholiast to be imitated from the Fourth Book
of Lucilius.
1-24. A young student is roused by one of his companions, who, after
meditating on his snoring form (1-4), remonstrates with him against
lying abed so long. Yawning and headachy, he attempts to go to work,
calls his servants testily, has his writing materials brought, swears at
them, and is rebuked by his sage friend for his babyishness, and urged
to make use of this golden season of life.
1. #Nempe#: The opening is made very lively by the use of _nempe_, which
implies a preceding statement, and thus plunges at once into the thick
of the dialogue. 'And so'-- a clear imitation of Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 1.
Comp. the English use of 'and' in the first verse of lyrics, and the
common stage trick of beginning a scene with conjunctions: Farquhar,
Beaux' Stratagem, 2, 2: '_And_ was she the daughter of the house?'
Cibber, The Provoked Wife, 5, 4: '_But_ what dost thou think will come
of this business?' This effect is lost by bringing in the _comes_ at v.
5, as some do. --#mane#: Substantive, the Abl. of which, _mane_
(_mani_), is in more common use as an Adverb. --#fenestras#: 'windows,'
here for 'window-shutters.'
2. #extendit#: 'makes wider,' 'makes seem wider,' a familiar optical
effect. --#rimas#: 'chinks' (between the shutters).
3. #stertimus#: Ironical First Person, excluding the speaker.
--#indomitum#: 'heady,' 'unmanageable' (Conington). Falernian was a
strong wine: _ardens_, Hor., Od., 2, 11, 9; _severum_, Od., 1, 27, 19;
_forte_, Sat., 2, 4, 24. Add Lucan, 10, 162: _#Indomitum# Meroe cogens
spumare #Falernum#_. --#quod sufficiat#: 'what ought to be enough.' G.,
633; A., 65, 2. --#despumare#: 'work off,' 'carry off the fumes of'
(Conington). _Despumare_ is a technical term 'skim' (Verg., Georg., 1,
296), like 'rack' in English.
4. #quint[-a] dum linea tangitur umbr[-a]#: where we should expect
_quint[)a] linea umbr[-a]_, by what is called Hypallagé. Conington
compares Aeschyl., Ag., 504: +dekatô se phengei tôd' aphikomên etous+.
See Schneidewin's note. --#dum#: 'while,' 'whereas,' 'and yet.' Comp.
G., 572, R.; A., 72, 1, _c_. --#linea#: of the sun-dial. The fifth hour
(about 11 o'clock) was the time of the _prandium_, according to Auson.,
Ephem. Loc. Ordin. Coqui, 1, 2 (Casaubon): _Sosia, prandendum est,
quartam iam totus in horam | sol calet: ad #quintam# flectitur umbra
#notam#_. In Horace's time breakfast was after 10 (Sat., 1, 5, 25). The
sophist Alciphron implies that 12 was the hour in his day (3, 4, 1).
5. #en quid agis?# Comp. _en quid ago_? Verg., Aen., 4, 534. In lively
questions the present is often used as a future, as: _Quoi #dono#
lepidum novum libellum?_ Catull., 1, 1. --#siccas#: proleptic or
predicative, to be combined with _coquit_. Conington renders 'is baking
the crops dry,' but _coquere_ is too common in this sense for such a
translation, a criticism which applies to a very large proportion of
Conington's picturesque versions. _Coquere_ is the regular word for
'ripen'-- Gr. +pessô+-- Varro, R. R., 1, 7, 4; 54, 1. Tr. 'is ripening
hard' (in the broiling sun). --#insana canicula#: 'the mad dog-star' is,
of course, the 'mad dog's star' (Conington). Comp. Hor., Od., 3, 29, 18;
Ep., 1, 10, 16.
7. #comitum#: _Comes_ is a wide term, embracing fellow-students and
tutors. The Greek word is +hoi sunontes+. See Lucian's famous tract,
+peri tôn epi misthô #sunontôn#+ (de mercede conductis).
8. #aliquis#: 'somebody,' '+tis+,' of a servant. _Aperite #aliquis#
actutum ostium_, Ter., Adelphi, 4, 4, 46. +Hôsper en oikô enioi despotai
prostattousi, Itô #tis# eph' hudôr, Xula #tis# schisatô+, Xen., Cyr., 5,
3, 49. --#nemon?# on the rhetorical _-ne_, see 1, 22. --#vitrea bilis#:
a medical term, +hualôdês cholê+, according to Casaubon. Comp.
_splendida bilis_, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 141.
9. #findor#: 'I'm splitting,' the exclamation of the impatient youth.
The old reading, _finditur_, 'he' or 'it' (_bilis_) 'is splitting,' has
little MS. authority. Others read _findimur_. --#Arcadiae pecuria#: The
asses of Arcady were famous in antiquity. --#rudere#: with _u_ long only
here and Auson., Epigr., 76, 3.
10. #iamque liber#: The distribution of these articles is not without
its difficulty. According to some, _liber_ is the author to be explained
by the teacher; _chartae_, the papyrus for rough notes; _membrana_, the
parchment for a more careful transcript. According to others, '_liber_
is the author out of which the lesson or thesis is to be transcribed,
and _membrana_ the parchment wrapper for preserving the loose sheets, as
the work progresses' (Pretor). --#bicolor#: used either of the two sides
of the skin-- the one from which the hair had been scraped, yellow, the
other white (Casaubon), or, more probably, of the custom of coloring the
parchment artificially (Jahn). --#capillis#: is commonly taken for
_pilis_, a rare use. The hair side of the skin was carefully smoothed
with pumice-stone. _Arida modo #pumice# expolitum_, Cat., 1, 2; _cui
#pumex# tondeat ante comas_, Tib., 3, 1, 10. The old explanation,
according to which _positis capillis = capillis ornatis sive pexis_
(Plum), has found an advocate in Schlüter. The young man is supposed to
have dressed his hair before he goes to work.